There was still more than a minute to play in what was – at the time – a nine-point ball game.

Then Auburn’s Denver Jones dribbled the basketball off his foot, sending it out of bounds and back into the hands of the Kentucky Wildcats. And it was at that point Auburn fans started trickling out onto the concourse and towards the exits of Neville Arena.

And considering all the build-up heading into Saturday’s game – much of which centered around how tough of an environment Neville Arena is for opponents to play in – seeing Tigers fans reach for their car keys before the game’s final whistle was the last thing that was supposed to happen Saturday night.

Then again, Auburn logging a historically poor shooting performance for a game at home and losing fifth-year senior Jaylin Williams to a night-ending knee injury wasn’t supposed to happen either.

But that’s how the story went for the 13th-ranked Tigers as they fell to the 22nd-ranked Kentucky Wildcats 70-59 in a game that snapped Auburn’s 16-game win streak from inside Neville Arena on Saturday night.

Auburn shot the basketball at a 31% clip from the field Saturday night, which was the lowest efficiency the Tigers have logged at home since Feb. 13, 2016 against Vanderbilt.

“We were getting the shots that we wanted,” said Auburn guard Denver Jones. “It was just one of those nights where, just, our shots weren’t falling.”

Meanwhile, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was much quicker to credit Kentucky’s defense for his team’s offensive struggles.

“Kentucky can guard and they can turn it up when they want to. Their ball pressure disrupted us,” Pearl said after the game. “Their ball pressure from their guards really wouldn’t allow us to get the ball into places on the floor that we kind of needed to be able to execute our offense or get the ball inside to Jaylin Williams or get the ball inside to Johni (Broome) more.”

Together, Broome and Williams – Auburn’s frontcourt tandem – combined for just 17 points against Kentucky with Broome tallying 14 and Williams tallying just three points in an effort that was abbreviated by a night-ending knee injury in the second half.

After rising up for a contested dunk and landing awkwardly, Williams was helped to the locker room and never returned to Auburn’s bench.

When Williams exited the game with 10:40 to play, the Tigers trailed by just seven points.

“Jaylin is arguably – he and Johni are our two best players. We were in range when he got hurt,” Pearl said. “We think he’s got to have something; we think it’s something. It’s not just a bang; he had pivot. We’ll do an MRI tomorrow and then we’ll take a look at it.”

Those two things – an uncharacteristically poor night of shooting and an unforeseen, unfortunate and untimely injury to one of Auburn’s best players – defined Saturday night’s loss to Kentucky.

And because of how atypical Saturday night felt, Pearl is all but hitting the panic button despite losing a pair of games in a seven-day span – first a loss at Florida on Feb. 10, followed by Saturday’s loss to Kentucky.

“I’m not worried about it,” Pearl said. “You know how I felt about this team from the very beginning. I said this is a good team with a chance to be a very good team. What they’ve shown is they’re a very good team with a chance to maybe be a great team.”

Pearl went on to say he “expected to see this at times against the best teams on our schedule.”

And after having played Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky in a four-game span, the Tigers have been through a gauntlet.

Now, they get a much-needed bye week before traveling to Georgia on Feb. 24.

“I still like our team. I do,” Pearl said. “We’re going to have to, if Jaylin’s out, we’re going to have to figure some things out. I think we have guys that will step up.”